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Not toward the animals.

Around them.

He studied the ground first, then the roots, then the branches.

I wanted to tell him he was wasting time.

Then he crouched.

"Here."

Nykos moved toward him.

Corian pointed. I followed the line of his hand. Thin dark wire crossed the route I had been about to take. It was almost invisible beneath the wet leaves.

Cold replaced anger.

Corian traced it with his eyes toward a root cluster where another length disappeared into the mud.

Dannian swore quietly.

"Trap line."

I stared.

Once I knew where one wire was, the rest emerged.

Another loop ran between two roots. A restraint frame lay concealed beneath flattened ferns, dark metal buried under leaves. A second line crossed the most direct path toward the injured animals, exactly where I would have stepped if Corian hadn't stopped me.

My stomach dropped.

"Electrified," I said.

"Yes."

The trapped animals cried again. This time I stayed where I was but it cost more than I wanted anyone to know.

Corian stood and looked back at me, "You were six steps from the first line."

"I see it."

"If you'd kept moving, you'd have hit it."

"I said I see it."

His eyes narrowed.

So did mine.

He came back toward me.

The others wisely found things elsewhere to examine.

"You don't get to be angry with me because I stopped you walking into a live trap."

"I wasn't angry because you stopped me."

"You were."